”Group Petitions IGP; Urges Him To Remove Anambra COP For Withdrawing Police Orderly From Judge Who Awarded 25M Damages Against Police”

A Human Rights Foundation which Identified itself as International Human Rights and Equity Defense Foundation (I-REF) has appealed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to remove the Commissioner of Police of Anambra State. It also appealed to him to reinstate the police security of the judge who was withdrawn by the COP for awarding 25 Million Naira judgement against the police.

The I-REF is a collection of lawyers, media practitioners and social activists committed to the protection, enforcement, preservation and advancement of human rights, social justice and equality in Nigeria.

In the petition made available to TheNigeriaLawyer (TNL) dated 29^th of April, 2020 and signed by the Executive Director, Justus Uche Ijeoma, Esq., the foundation recalled that “some police officers in Onitsha had sometime in 2019 at the instance of the Onitsha Area Commander, ACP John Obuagbaka, grievously assaulted a lawyer, Mr. O. J. Obasi. The assault by the officers as captured in a viral video drew public opprobrium against the Anambra State Command of the Nigerian Police, in particular and the Nigerian Police in general.”

I-REF said the victim filed an action for the enforcement of his fundamental rights as a result of which compensation was awarded in his favour to the tune of 25 Million Naira. It lamented that instead of the Commissioner of Police to appeal against the decision, he chose Impunity. “We have it on god authority that the Commissioner of Police has withdrawn the orderly of the Hon. Judge, thereby exposing him to physical and psychological threats and insecurity. The only crime the Hon. Judge committed against the CP is discharging his constitutional duties without fear or favour.”

It therefore called on the IGP to, as a matter of urgency, do the following:

1. “Direct the CP to immediately restore the orderly of the Hon. Judge. The CP must be made to realise that the orderly assigned to the Hon. Judge is not any special favour from the CP to him. It is part of the legal rights attached to his office as a judicial officer of that sanding. We shall hold the Commissioner of Police responsible should anything untoward happen to Hon. Justice T. U. Oguji or even the Applicant in the sais matter, Mr. O. J. Obasi, Esq.
2. “Immediately direct the removal of the CP from Anambra State. The CP has clearly demonstrated gross incompetence as the Commissioner of police in the State. Under his watch, there have been a lot of reported cases of egregious human rights violations and highhandedness by officers and men of the Nigeria Police in the State. If a police boss of the status of the CP can engage in this kind of reckless indiscretion against a judicial officer, you can then imagine what his officers do to the ordinary people of the State.”

I-REF concluded that “It was under the watch of this same CP that two young men were killed by the police on the 15^th of April, 2020 at Nkpor in Anambra in the guise of enforcing restriction of movement, which almost led to total a breakdown of law and order in the area. Up till now nothing, to our knowledge, has been done about the matter.  On the same 15^th of March, the social media was fire with the video of a man who allegedly refused to offer bribes to the Police officers at Umunze in Anambra State, as a result of which his car tyres were busted with gunshots by the police. It is obvious that CP Abang is not interested in protecting the image of the Police, all he is concerned about is how to enrich himself, howbeit unlawful. The list is endless, but we don’t intend to belabour the matter with endless litany of yet to be resolved cases of human rights abuse by the Police in the Command.”

The petition was copied to:

 The National Judicial Council

 The Police Service Commission

 The National Human Rights Commission

 The President, Nigerian Bar Association

 The Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary

 The Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary

 The Executive Governor of Anambra State

 The Speaker Anambra State House of assembly

 The Honourable, the Chief Judge of Anambra State

 The Director DSS, Anambra State Command

 The Commissioner of Police, Anambra State.

 The Amnesty International Nigeria.

 The Chairman, NBA Onitsha Branch

TNL recalls that the judge delivered the judgment on Monday 27^th of April, 2020 and awarded the sum of N25m as damages in favour of the Onitsha based lawyer, Ogbonaya Jacob Obasi for assaulting him. In the judgment delivered in the fundamental human rights enforcement suit filed by the applicant, with the SUIT NO:O/ MISC.312/2019, Hon. Justice Theophine U. Oguji, also ordered the Police to tender a written apology to the applicant which must be published on Vanguard Newspaper.